Means for transporting rabbit or poultry hutches or the like.



PATENTED JUNE 19,. 1906.

J. PARKER. I MEANS FOR TRAN'SPORTING RABBIT 0R POULTRY HUTOHES OR THE LIKE.

APPLIUATIOH FILED JAN. 2, 1906- w V H vAvV M m9 A's/7778722: Wwwa on, n. c;

' and therefore without risk of damaging the.

UNITED. STATES EN OFFICE.

JOHN PARKER, OF MANCHESTER, ENGLAND; MEANSFORJRANSPORTING RABBIT OR- POULTRY-HUTCH ES OR THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Iatented June 19, 1906.

To allwhom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J HN PARKER, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of Manchester, England, have invented a new and Improved Means for Transporting Rabbit or PoultryHutches and the Like, of which the following is a specification.

In the rearing of young rabbits and poultry it is customary to house them in a portable open-bottomedhutch or'a hutch having a woven-wire floor, so that they may feed on the grass beneath the hutch, and it is also customary to move the hutch from time to time to a fresh place, so as to obtain a fresh supply of grass. With hutohes of large size and even of medium or small size the moving of the same is a troublesome task and is usually the work of two or more'persons, and unless the hutch is properly and carefully movedit tends to damage the turf or spoil the new grass. A further drawback is that the hutch when so moved is not always carried horizontally, and the utensils or fittings within the hutch are thus liable to be upset, besides also disturbing the rabbits or poultry.

The object of thisinvention is to provide cheap, simple, and easily-applied means whereby a hutch may be readily moved from place to place by one person only and in a horizontal or substantially horizontal plane,

fresh grass or disturbing the contents 'of the hutch.

According to the invention I provide each of the, by preference, longitudinal sides of the hutch with a long bar or lever and pivot the lever at a point near one end and near to the bottom edge of the hutch, the major por- .tion of each bar lying alongside the hutch and only a short length projecting beyond the hutch at either end. To one end of each bar I fit a wheel or roller and the other I end form into a handle. At the end of the hutch where the handles come I provide guides for the bars to work through, the upper and lower parts acting as stops. When the hutch is lying fiat on the ground, the bars are horizontal and lie in the lower parts of the guides.

When it is required to move the hutch to a' fresh place, the handle ends of the bars are lifted until the bars abut against the upper parts of the guides, by which time the on of the hutch nearest the wheels is raised clear of the ground, the wheels acting as the fulcra. The handle ends of the bars are then still I further raised, when the other end ofthe hutch is also raised and the entire hutch thus held clear of the ground and made free to be wheeled about in a like manner to a wheelbarrow, only in a horizontal instead of an angular position. Upon lowering the handles and allowing them to resume their normal positions the hutch again rests on the ground.

Upon the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 illustrates an ordinary rabbit-hutch with my invention applied thereto, the view being taken from the wheel end of the hutch. Fig. 2 illustrates the same hutch, but from the handle end. Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate geometric side elevations of the hutch and serve to of the hutch is raised (see Fig. 3) and then the rear end. (See Fig. 4.)

The invention applies to any make of hutch, but chiefly to that shown in the drawings, which is made of wood with the usual doors, partitions, and wire screen, and either open bottom or fitted with a woven-wire floor.

. A is the body of the. hutch, B B are the two bars or levers, C C the wheels, and D the guides forming my invention. Each bar is by preference about two and one-half inches wide by one inch thick and about a foot to fifteen inches longer than the hutch. Each bar is pivoted upon a plain pin or bolt E, secured to the hutch side as near to one end of the hutch and as low down as its wheel C and guide D will allow with the hutch resting flat on the ground. Each wheel 0 is by preference carried by a U-shaped metal extension B of the bar B, which is bolted firmly at each end to the opposite faces of the bar end. Instead, however, of such arrangement the bar end may be fitted with a forked cap and the wheel be axially mounted between the forks of the cap.

In Figs. 1 and 2 the hutch is resting on the ground, the bars being in their normal (at rest) position. In Fig. 3 the two handle ends of the bars are raised into abutment with the top parts of the guides D, thus holding raised one end of the hutch.

In Fig. 4a the handle ends are further raised, thus causing both ends of the hutch to be raised and the hutch made free to be wheeled to a fresh place. On the bars being lowered one end of the hutch first touches the ground and then the other, and by the time the levers are at rest the hutch is resting solidly on the ground by its own lower edges. To'insure the simultaneous lifting of both bars, they may be joined by a cross-rod F, as shown in the levers formed as handles, and guides Fig.2. To prevent undue strain on thelevers, fixed to the hutch through which. the handle the sides of thehutch maybe fittedwith plates ends of the levers pass, substantially as and G, against the edges of which the levers will for the purposes herein set forth. 15 5 bear when raised. (See Fig. 4.) I In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my }Vhat Ibclaim is h h fi d d hand in the presence of two witnesses.

n com ination, a utc a Xe stu on each side of the hutch and near one end, a' JOHN PARKER long lever mounted near one end on each Witnesses: IO stud, a roller and roller axis carried by each REGINALD HULME,

g lever at such end, and-the opposite ends of JOHN CAMP. 

